Variety reports that Toni Collette, though just starting a shoot on Hitchcock, has grabbed parts in a couple of promising indies. The first (and most prolific) of these would be Miss You Already, a Jennifer Aniston-led dramedy directed by Paul Andrew Williams that we told you about two months ago. Written by the director and Morwenna Banks, Miss You Already revolves around two best friends who need each others support, after one is diagnosed with breast cancer and the other expects the birth of her first child.

Aniston has already been cast in the former role; Collette is lining up to take on the latter, described as “the more reserved of the duo.” An interesting pairing — which is to say they haven’t taken career paths that, realistically, would make me expect said pairing — and this might, in all likelihood, prove to be my main source of interest on Miss You Already. (Hint hint, producers.) Shooting is expected to begin in the fall.

Her second project is entirely new to our ears: A Long Way Down, an adaptation of a book from author Nick Hornby (An Education) that Pascal Chaumeil (Heartbreaker) will direct; Amanda Posey and Finola Dwyer will, as with An Education, be producing. With Pierce Brosnan also in talks to star, Long Way Down follows four strangers who inadvertently find themselves all planning to jump from the same roof on New Year’s Eve.

If the proper deals snap into place, Collette will be seen as “the helpless single mom of a disabled young man”; Brosnan would play a talk show host with a career ruined by scandal. This one’s going to be a moody time, no doubt, but glancing at some positive comments for the book don’t have me dreading your typical misery porn, thankfully. A Long Way Down should roll cameras toward the end of this summer.

What do you make of either project? Are they worth Collette’s talents?